Category: First Looks »

Death Stranding has wandered its way onto iOS, and considering it is yet another beefy and demanding title for iOS devices to handle that seem to be trickling out as of late, I took the liberty of trying the game out for myself, recording my first stretch of gameplay with it, and drawing up some impressions to share with anyone who might be interested in picking it up.

Read on below for some detailed analysis and info of the game at first blush, otherwise feel free to watch or scrub through the video posted above to see for yourself what it seems like.

Resident Evil 4 comes to iOS today, and we've taken video of the entire free portion that is available to let you see it in action and get a sense of how this new version fares. The short version is, this game feels an awful lot like the port job of Resident Evil Village, albeit with a modern classic, as opposed to a game that feels like a dated also-ran.

Read on below if you want more detailed perspective on Resident Evil 4 on iOS. Otherwise, you can look through the video to see it in action along with some light captions reflecting on the play session.

Apple talked a big game about bringing bigger (ahem) games to mobile at last year's WWDC, and the first title they touted as part of this effort is finally out. Capcom's Resident Evil Village is out now on the App Store and is a complete mobile port of the original game.

I've gotten my hands on it and put a decent amount of time into the spooky survival-horror game, getting just a bit past the title's "free-to-start" section and I recorded most of that experience in the video above. Because of Capcom's rules about sharing gameplay, the video also has editorial captions about what I think of the game, but I'll also outline some more thoughts below.

It would be fair to say that a genre of games that isn’t in the spotlight often is the humble tower defense. In a world of AAA shooters and expansive open-world options, they are easy to overlook as they lack that hook that grips you. This is about to change, however, as Krafton is reinventing the category with Defense Derby.

Don’t just throw money at the problem

One of the most integral features of Defense Derby is the betting system, which you will encounter in the eponymous Derby Mode. Four players will be quasi-battling against each other to see whose tower can be the last one standing. So, how do you defend a castle? With troops, lots of them, but these fickle fighters only go to those who win at auction.

Barring your hero, two initial fighters, and one after each boss wave who will join you from your deck, your ranks will only swell through some good old betting. After each round, one unit will be drawn from a player's deck, and everyone will need to put up Derby Chips to try and buy them. The highest wins as you would imagine. Sounds simple, but this generates some of the most intense mental battles.

Since its official release, I've had a hard time putting down *Omega Strikers. I'm still very much as high on it as I was when I posted my glowing review, and now there's even more reason for me to play it. This week the game saw its first significant update, which added new characters, a new map, and some other little tweaks to make this already great game even better.

You can check out footage of my time inspecting and trying out the game's new characters (and going through the shop to purchase all the new skins, emotes, etc.) in the video above, and you can read on for some additional impressions and an overall evaluation of the update.

I always get excited to see how certain developers push the envelope when it comes to gaming on iOS. As a result, it should come as no surprise that I was eager to get my hands on War Mongrels from Destructive Creations. This version is a straight port of the PC and console title, and--although it may not be a technical marvel on those platforms--bringing it over in an essentially unchanged state kind of is.

The game came out three weeks ago and I immediately got a code for it, but the hold up on posting impressions was due to the fact that this mobile version had some significant issues running on the devices it says it is compatible on the App Store. And by significant I mean that when trying to play the game on my 3rd generation iPad Pro the game wouldn't even boot to the menu. The only thing I could do was view the production logos before the game hard crashed out to my home screen.

At the end of last year, I had the opportunity to test out Omega Strikers while it was still in beta. Fast forward to now and the game is officially out with some marked improvements and changes. It'll take some time to solidify thoughts on the game into a fully-fledged review, but until then I can share some impressions and recommendations about this exciting new kind of multiplayer game.

If you aren't up-to-date on what Omega Strikers is, it's a 3v3 competitive game about a fake sport that most closely resembles hockey. Teams all control hero characters with special abilities that they can use to hit a puck around (or each other) as they try score goals. In press releases it's commonly described as "Rocket-League-of-Legends," which is accurate enough, though I'd say a more apt comparison would be to games like Windjammers and Pokémon Unite.

Just before Christmas, Odyssey Interactive brough their fast and fun 3v3 knockout striker title, Omega Strikers, to mobile in the form of an open beta. The game had previously been available to play in beta on Steam since September, but when the game was announced the developers were very clear about their intent to bring the game to smaller screens.

I had been previously dabbling with Omega Strikers on PC, but only truly dove in head-first once I could get my hands on it in mobile form. Since release, I've poured a ton of time into it and can shed some insight on future plans for the game in addition to some tips to help you get started if you want to pick it up yourself and try it out.

As part of my job here at 148Apps, I often explore games I have no intention of reviewing or otherwise writing about. Part of being able to offer substantial criticism or perspective on mobile games is to understand a lot of what is out there, even if I don't end up turning those experiences into content or critique.

I went into Chimeraland fully expecting to just dip my toe in to understand what it is before moving on, but it didn't take long to realize this game is... remarkable, to say the least. Although it mostly purports to be an open-world survival rpg (which it mostly is, by the way), it also seem dedicated to being as strange and unwieldy as possible. It's a huge download with an almost minute long initial load (on an iPad Pro, even), and across my first hour with the game I had a hard time making sense of much of what was going on. Check out the video above to see what I'm talking about.

Diablo Immortal only came out a little over a month ago, but it's not the only splashy action rpg making big promises on mobile. Torchlight is a series that has always been an interesting offshoot of Diablo in that it was originally co-designed by the same people who worked on the first two Diablo games, and now it seems to be making its way to smaller screens courtesy of XD Network in the form of Torchlight: Infinite.

I finally got some advance access to the game in its current, early stages and have to say I'm pretty impressed with what I've seen so far. You can check out almost an hour of gameplay in the video above and read on below for some more detailed analysis.

Rocket League Sideswipe continues to be one of our favorite multiplayer games to keep coming back to, and recently Psyonix gave players more of a reason to. With Season 4 launching this week, the game's beloved Hoops mode returns for Ranked and casual play in addition to an entirely different casual mode known as Mutator Madness.

The season also brings some new cosmetics that all seem to be revolving around medieval tropes, but the real new thing to talk about is this new mode and exactly how it works. Read on below to find out more.

It's finally here! Diablo Immortal, the game that made fans ridiculously mad at its existence for reasons that didn't make any sense, released on mobile this week and--as predicted--it seems an awful lot like a Diablo game, if you're into that sort of thing.

I've got a full play session recording in the video above showing what the first hour or so of the game looks like. For the first 30 minutes or so, it looks and feels almost exactly like a regular old Diablo game. But--since this is a free-to-play title--there comes a point where you clear the introductory quest and from there you are showered with in-game mail, welcome banners, daily quests, shop menus, and more.

The next big battle royale game on mobile is finally here. Yesterday, Apex Legends Mobile dropped onto iOS and serves up a modified version of Respawn Entertainment's smash multiplayer hit that is custom tuned for touch and mobile play. I have not played a lot of the console and PC version of this game, but in my limited time with Apex Legends Mobile so far it does, in fact, seem to capture a lot of the original game's spirit, tension, and flow.

To check out the game in action from the initial boot, through the tutorial, and on to real matches, check out the video above. For some more detailed impressions, read on below.

One of the top ten games I played last year just recently released a new expansion. Hundred Days, the winery management simulator, now has a new set of challenges and wine varieties to represent California's wine landscape, and it's a welcome addition to an already great game.

Back in November of 2020, I reviewed Space Marshals 3, concluding that it feels a lot like the same old Space Marshals, but in the sense that all of the games in the series are great. Now, with the game's third and final chapter in place, I can't really say that anymore. In its finished state Space Marshals 3 is now the definitive stealth action game on the App Store and the sheer amount and variety of ways it mixes up its gameplay through its add-on content is second to none.